Week 1

This week went extremely fast! I'm very proud of all the interns. They started the summer with A LOT to learn and they have done a fabulous job. Here's a list of the things we completed the first week of the summer:

• Touch Tank
  
• Shark Cart Programs


• Sea Turtle Cart Programs


• Turtle Animal Programs


• Exhibit Guiding


• Watch education shows


• Complete 2 worksheets

This list may not seem huge, but considering we have 60 exhibiting, over 6000 animals and 10,000 plants, they have done a wonderful job coming in to work ready to learn and help. I know they all really enjoy the touch tank. At the touch tank they have been able to get to know our volunteers. The volunteers have stepped right in to help make the interns feel comfortable.

My favorite part of a new group of interns is watching them go from being very apprehensive the first day or two to becoming much more comfortably and independent.

Next on the list of training will be a lot of husbandry shifts, helping out with animal care. They will be trained on things such as making touch tank food, helping feed the penguins, cleaning out alligator exhibits, preping bird diets and completing afternoon bird rounds. This is an exciting part of the job for many of the interns because many of them hope to go into the field of zoology or veterinary medicine. This will give them a lot of experience around animals. Not to mention they will begin their snake roaming shifts as well!

We are lucky to have another great group of high school students this summer. I look forward to the next several weeks!! I plan to post my favorite picture of each week. The one posted this time is of Carlee dressed as the sea turtle with her friends Ka'la and Angela.
Come visit the blog again soon for more updates on our summer!

-Jaime